We saw yesterday how Jesus said one goal mattered more than even day to day concerns like food and clothing: his kingdom. He said, “seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you.” What does that mean?
First of all, it doesn’t mean seek only God’s kingdom as some spiritual distant concept and ignore the realities of day to day life. Jesus doesn’t meant we should never eat or sleep, or that those things are inherently bad. He says quite clearly, when we seek first the kingdom, “then all these will be added to you.” He knows we need them, and wants to be the one to give them to us, but in their proper perspective.
For example, consider food. We need food to live, and good food is an enjoyable part of living. But that good thing can be made into an ultimate thing, and when that happens, it becomes a very bad thing. When we elevate food to become more than it was meant to be, and it becomes our source of comfort, emotional stability, we are in both physical and spiritual danger.
Instead, Jesus challenges us to seek kingdom of God. God is the creator sustainer of the whole world, including its food sources. He created, called it good, and wants us to enjoy the world’s sustenance so we can do our daily work and enjoy his provision. When we find our true satisfaction in God, then we can enjoy good things for what they are…we don’t have to overdo it, and we don’t have to hate it. This applies to food, and any number of other good things God created.
In the Christianity 101 course, we sometimes illustrate this with a wagon wheel. The hub is special – it’s particularly strong, and has a unique shape to do its job. The spokes are meant to be all connected with, and delivering power from the hub to the rim.
If we try to remove the hub and replace it with a spoke, you know what happens, it all falls apart. It’s the same with our lives. We were made to have God at the center of our lives, providing meaning and purpose to the whole. Unfortunately the human race tried to remove God from the center long ago, and have been trying to shove spokes in ever since, whether it be money, career, sexuality, power, or any other good thing God created that can be abused. This is a good definition of sin: When we take good things, try to make them our ultimate good, and that’s ultimately really bad for us.
Question: Make a list of good things in our world that can be abused.
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Hi, welcome to Redeem the Commute. I'm Ryan your host of the Daily Challenges. Here we are in a cemetery because this week we're studying how following Jesus resets our views of death, and in fact, Jesus resets death itself.
In yesterday’s passage, a Christian leader named Paul calls dead Christians “those who are asleep”. The suggestion is that they will wake up in the kingdom of heaven, and be no different from those who might be alive when the kingdom of heaven arrives fully. How does Paul figure?
They will wake up because Jesus woke up. There is a direct connection.
Jesus Died – definitely. We have lots of great textual evidence that matches science to say that Jesus definitely died, it was no mistake. See Christianity 101 for more! He spent Saturday in the tomb, and rose on Sunday. In that time in the tomb, he destroyed death’s power. Usually death is final, but Jesus treated it like a 3 day nap.
Death is nothing to fear for one of Jesus’ followers. Paul asked elsewhere: death, where is your sting? He taunts it, knowing it has no power. Jesus’ victory is not just someone else’s victory to celebrate. He was the first, not the last, so we can follow him not just in life, but through death to new life.
He doesn’t promise that we’ll never die a physical death, like the Thessalonian Christians apprently thought. But if we do, he will raise us.
One pastor asked a child whose mother died: would you rather be run over by a truck, or its shadow. It’s shadow, because it wouldn’t hurt. Well, your mother has not been run over by death, but by the shadow of death.
Regardless of whether we are alive or dead when the kingdom comes, it comes. We arrive there not by our own power, religiosity, etc. but by Jesus’ pioneering work on the cross. He went through death, conquering it first, and invites you to follow.
But that’s just death, how does this impact life? You may know the song, “Live like you were dying”. The idea in that song, and else where, is that if you’re dying you waste everything you have, party it up, before it’s all gone and you’re over.
But if death is destroyed by Jesus, death is now a state we pass through, so living like you were dying means living like every day brings you closer to God’s kingdom. That means using our resources wisely, no wasting them. It means preparing for the kingdom of heaven, so often described as a party, not just partying it up for a moment.
For a Christian, living like you were dying means not taking the short view, but the long view of eternity.
Question: How does Jesus’ death impact your own view of life, and death?
